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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. -- C S Lewis

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Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Anti-Smokers Thwart Anti-Smoking Programme

Well, I've been a bit slack lately. There hasn't been a great deal to write about, and the few things I might have written about were already covered by others. Also, I confess that I feel a bit lazy and uninspired. I cannot even be bothered to fire up Twitter or Facebook. My Give-a-Fuck meter has bottomed out at -100. This means it's time for a holiday, definitely somewhere warm and sunny, and preferably somewhere smoker-friendly. Suggestions?

A storyline in TV drama Casualty warning about the dangers of smoking had to be dropped because of Wales' anti-smoking laws, says the BBC.

Oh, the delicious irony. The BBC wanted to do a storyline about the dangers of smoking, but smoking is so dangerous that the producers had to scrap the storyline and do something else because there is no exemption for film productions in Wales (like there is England). I fucking love that.

The Welsh government wants to introduce an exemption, as there is in England, so actors can smoke on film sets. [...] The Welsh film industry has warned it could lose major drama productions
to England because it is illegal for actors to smoke on film sets in
Wales.

Naturally, the anti-smoker Inquisition headed up by ASH Wales, CRUK and BHF is outraged over the idea of any exemption to their hate legislation:

Anti-smoking group Ash said the law was designed to protect workers and should remain in force on public health grounds.

Ash press and campaigns managers Felicity Waters said: "This,
we would argue, is a matter of convenience for the television industry -
and health legislation should not be amended on commercial grounds.
"What industry is going to come next?"

Her stance was backed by the British Heart Foundation and
Cancer Research UK, who said there was no safe level of smoke and that
the ban on smoking indoors should be absolute.

It's really not about protecting anyone from smoking. It's all about protecting their precious legislation. If an exemption were made for actors and film companies, then other industries would clamour for an exemption too, they say in a related article also on the BBC today, and we cannot have that happening:

Anti-smoking group Ash told Tuesday's sub-committee meeting that an
exemption is "wholly unnecessary" and could lead to other industries
appealing for an exemption.

The ban should remain in place to protect workers, it told [Welsh Assembly Members].

It says: "If this exemption is passed on the basis of
commercially supporting a specific industry, we can expect a litany of
requests from other industries such as pubs, clubs and the tourism
industry for exemptions due to tough economic times."

Cancer Research UK director of tobacco control Dr Jean King
said: "Our concern would be that other industries - and not just
industries, but very powerful vested interests behind those industries -
support those industries to get put forward cases."

Hold on a sec. Did ASH Wales just admit that the smoking ban has had a detrimental effect on pubs and clubs by way of suggesting that an exemption for them too would improve those businesses in these tough economic times? I think they sorta did in a roundabout fashion.

Obviously the pub trade would like to see an exemption, because they know that the smoking ban has destroyed their business. But for the anti-smokers, it's a case of screw everyone and their livelihoods in support of draconian legislation that nobody really wants except for the New Inquisition and its devout followers who know what is best for all of you.

Whilst I don't really care what happens in Wales (to be fair, does anyone outside of Wales?) or to BBC Wales in particular, I am a little interested to see what happens. I doubt it would lead to much clamouring for exemptions from other industries, judging by the meek whimpers we've seen from the "powerful vested interests" in England -- "meek" meaning almost nil. But if the Welsh decide to amend their legislation for the actors, dah-ling, and it subsequently pisses off this moronic, socialist cuntscab from Cardiff, then that would be a bonus in my view.